Alex Cohen
Alex Cohen is the reporter for NPR's fastest-growing daily news program, Day to Day where she has covered everything from homicides in New Orleans to the controversies swirling around the frosty dessert known as Pinkberry.
Though based at NPR West in California, she's traveled to Des Moines to cover the first-in-the-nation caucus in 2008; to Paris (Texas, that is) to report on a devastating drought and to the far corners of the Navajo Nation to profile a politician forced to choose between his tribe and the New Mexico Senate.
Cohen also fills in as the host of Day to Day. With her colleagues Alex Chadwick and Madeleine Brand, she has anchored live breaking news coverage of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and the Minneapolis bridge collapse. She's interviewed Nobel Laureates, members of Congress, Grammy-winner Lucinda Williams and some people you may not have heard of, like the inventor of scratch-n-sniff wallpaper and David Depto (U.S. champion of the new intellectual and brutal sport of chess boxing.)
There is little Cohen won't do for Day to Day listeners. She's braved the the war zone of the "All You Can Eat" seats at Dodger Stadium. She played countless hours of Guitar Hero II to get audio from the game's last level — Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird." And she grooved to the Beach Boys while drinking several varieties of Chardonnay to test a theory about the effect of music on wine. (It was worth it: The piece wound up being one of NPR's Most E-mailed Stories.)
Cohen started her career at NPR as an intern with Weekend Edition Sunday, where she also launched the first-ever "Intern Edition." Since then, she has worked just about every angle radio has to offer. She's been a bureau chief, show host, newscast anchor, director, producer and editor at member station KQED, at NPR and for the American Public Media programs Marketplace and Weekend America.
She graduated from Brown University where she studied Eastern Religions and went on to get her Masters of Journalism at the University of Berkeley at California. Cohen has won awards from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
She lives in the LA neighborhood of Atwater Village with her husband Rich and their two dogs Buddy and Bosco. When not making radio, Alex plays banked track roller derby under the nom de guerre Axles of Evil.
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This week, executives from the Big Three head back to Washington to make another plea to lawmakers for loans. We look at their latest plan to prop up their ailing companies.
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President-elect Barack Obama also formally nominated Eric Holder as attorney general, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations.
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A photographer and a comedy writer went through over 50,000 head shots and picked out those that "took our breath away." The book that resulted is a bizarre tutorial in the art of getting noticed, starring an actress who will only wear pink and other entertaining dreamers. -
Fifteen years after she released her groundbreaking album Exile in Guyville, the femme rocker is on tour, performing the album live in front of audiences. She discusses Exile's influence on herself as well as the music industry.
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Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama will be giving his big speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous I Have a Dream speech, meaning the stakes are extremely high. We visit with a local debate team in Denver to see what they are looking for.
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Performance artist Hillary Carlip collects discarded shopping lists. She imagines their authors, transforms herself into them, and goes shopping. In one case, she even created an online dating profile for her character.
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Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch became a YouTube sensation when one of his lectures was posted online. A published version of that lecture became a best-selling book. Pausch died Thursday night after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
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Steve Cirinna, Lee County Emergency Management coordinator, discusses how his Iowa county is preparing for a flood surge. Cirinna also warns that with fertilizer and propane in the flood water, it can be a long-term health risk.
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Before Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was killed, only incumbent presidential candidates were given Secret Service protection. Over the years the agency has developed criteria for which White House hopefuls receive security services.
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The indie movie princess and folk indie prince have joined forces under a simple moniker. Their debut album, which feels like it came from another era, has already landed the duo on multiple critics' Best of 2008 lists.
